Hamlet's Tragic Flaw example essay topic

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles was considered to be the perfect tragedy by Aristotle, and he used it to define literary tragedy. According to Aristotle, tragedy must be composed of six necessary elements. There has to be a protagonist, a morally superior hero, who suffers a great fall precipitated by the character's own tragic flaw. In culmination, the hero must experience tragic enlightenment before he or she succumbs to deep suffering or death. Often labeled a "revenge tragedy", the Shakespearean play Hamlet is a fatal drama packed with revenge, murder, madness, and mysticism. Prince Hamlet, the protagonist, is plunged into turmoil after his father's ghost charges him to revenge the King's murder at the hands of his uncle, who has since donned the crown and wed Hamlet's mother.

Shakespeare's famous work Hamlet is certainly a calamitous tale, but it fails to meet Aristotle's requirements for tragedy. Admirable, sympathetic, and clearly admired by many, Hamlet meets Aristotle's requirement for a hero of model character. Just and sincere, Hamlet struggles throughout the play with his obligations to love, duty, and justice. Above all, Hamlet desires to act honorably and ethically in a tumultuous and immoral world. Incessantly ruminating on what is right and good, Hamlet is thoughtful, reflective, and holds himself to the standards no lower than he holds others.

His duty to revenge his father's death by killing his uncle clashes with his moral repugnance for murder. Despite Hamlet's actions that are ultimately disastrous, and at times brutal, his motivation is always to act morally and justly. It is for this reason that he delays the murder of his uncle. Fearful that the ghost may have deceived him, Hamlet does not attempt to act against his uncle until verifies his guilt. To do this, he produces a provocative play about murder and studies the king's reaction "to catch the conscience of the king". (2.2. 606) Coming upon his uncle alone in a church, Hamlet does not use the ideal opportunity to murder him out of concern that he would be sent to heaven since he would have died at prayer.

Instead Hamlet wishes to murder the King while committing one of his many vices, to ensure his uncle's damnation. The most important factor in Hamlet's procrastination of the murder is his moral repulsion for such an act. Sensitive and honorable, Hamlet is paralyzed by his outrage and disgust for the evils of the world around him. He is expected to avenge his father through murder and knows he has the "cause, and will, and strength, and means to do't", (4.4. 45) but Hamlet cannot commit an act he finds so immoral and repulsive. Unfortunately, Hamlet's inability to act leads to the disastrous and bloody ending of the play.

Although he never recognizes it, Hamlet's impractical standards of morality cause him to be incapable of committing deliberate action, and that is his tragic flaw. He is immobilized by his inner ethical conflict, so he does not act against his uncle until forced, and the consequences are disastrous. If Hamlet had murdered his uncle soon after the ghost charged him to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder", (1.5. 25) then many bloody deaths, including his own would have been avoided.

Certainly Hamlet was bound to and would have been praised for avenging his father's murder, so he had no cause to avoid what was dictated by society at that time as his duty. His lack of success can only be attributed to his idealistic sense of morality that was in conflict with the actuality of the world he lived in. He vows vengeance, but he feels tormented by his duty: "O cursed spite, that I was ever born to set it right". (1.5. 189) Hamlet is never able to reconcile the two opposing ethical demands, and so he is not able to do what he must, which is to kill his uncle.

He attributes his delay in avenging his father's death to "cowardice", and grows disgusted with himself for his inaction Suffering much inner turmoil, Hamlet expresses his anguish and disgust: "Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, that I, son of a dear father murder'd, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, must like a whore, unpack my heart with words, and fall cursing, like a very drab, a scullion! Fie upon it, foh! About, my brain!" (2.2. 583) Although he frequently berates himself, Hamlet never recognizes that he simply does not want to commit the murder. He never admits that the act goes against his nature and he wants no part of it.

Shakespeare's drama Hamlet is certainly a tragic tale, but it does not meet Aristotle's requirements for a tragedy. Hamlet is a sympathetic and admirable hero with a deep sense of justice and ethics. Impotence, Hamlet's tragic flaw, precipitates his downfall and death, as well as the deaths of people dear to him. Depressed, and tormented, Hamlet suffers greatly as he loses friendships, love, self-respect, and life.

Importantly, he never realizes that his own inaction caused the calamities and suffering in his life. Hamlet never experiences tragic enlightenment, so the play does not qualify as a tragedy by Aristotle's definition. None the less, one can think of no better way to describe Hamlet then with the word "tragic.".